1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a retractable wheels for a built-in luggage cart, and particularly to the wheelwhich is extended when the luggage is pulled and are retracted when the luggage is stowed.
2. Description of Related Art
Generally travelers, especially old people, find it tiring to have to carry their luggage during the trips. Built-in luggage carts are widely used to make it easier to carry luggage. However, conventional built-in luggage carts only have fixed wheels protruded out from the luggage, which can cause trouble when the wheels are hit and damaged during transportation. The wheels can also cause problems when the luggage is stowed or being collected because the protruding wheels use a lot of space. Patents such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,400,472; U.S. Pat. No. 5,553,350; U.S. Pat. No. 5,367,473; U.S. Pat. No. 5,371,923; U.S. patent application No. 09/273,851; U.S. patent application No. 09/401,003; U.S. patent application No. 09/453,666, application No. 09/573,981 filed by the same applicant of the present invention . . . etc. all described luggage carriers of different types. However, the drawbacks still exist and bother the users a lot.
Therefore, an objective of the present invention is to provide a retractable wheel for a built-in luggage cart to mitigate and/or obviate the aforementioned problems.
The object of the present invention is to provide a retractable wheel for a built-in luggage cart. The retractable wheel comprises a frame permanently attached to the luggage, a wheel mount and a wheel received in a wheel well in the frame, a strut movable along a vertical direction and a pair of arms having opposite ends respectively pivoted with the strut and the wheel mount of the wheel, whereby the wheel mount of the wheel is operable by a user between an extended position to enable the luggage to be movable on the wheels on the ground, and a retracted position to ease collection of the luggage, when the telescopic pull rods are extended and retracted.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a retractable wheel that can be sized to fit different sizes of built-in luggage carts.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a built-in luggage cart with retractable wheels in accordance with the present invention;
FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the retractable wheel assembly in accordance with the present invention;
FIG. 3 is a front plan view in partial section of the retractable wheel in FIG. 2 with the wheel retracted;
FIG. 4 is a cross sectional side plan view of the retractable wheel in FIG. 3;
FIG. 5 is a front plan view in partial section of the retractable wheel in FIG. 2 with the wheel is extended; and
FIG. 6 is a cross sectional side plan view of the retractable wheel in FIG. 5 with the wheel extended.